Ẹńgaliś Anụ
Classification and Dialects This is directly related to Modern English. It is through a quote, however, by John McWhorter in his book What Language Is that gave me this idea: :: It’s a pain for English speakers to have to learn the gender of every noun in French or German along with the noun itself. But in Navajo, for every single verb in the language, you have to learn the five variations. You just have to know. The nearest equivalent for an English speaker would be if every verb were like be, where we have to know that it’s I am but I was and I’ve been and, subjunctively, if I were—just imagine if English had it in addition that today I speak, yesterday I spoke, tomorrow I spock, repetitively I spack, and hypothetically I just might spoo. With this quote, I will create a Navajo-inspired English Conlang. This language could quite possibly be a dialect of English, if spoken by a group of nomads from northern North America. Phonology Consonants Vowels Phonotactics Writing System ' is used as a glottal stop only when a suffix is added to a word that already ends in a vowel. Either way, it is very uncommon for this to happen. Yy is sometimes used to help create a diphthong, usually with the eɪ, aɪ, and ɔɪ sounds. Again, it is often unusual for this to happen. To mark stress on a word that could be stressed on any which syllable, such as "anew," there is a marker to help clarify. The dot diacritic (.) can be used (except ones that already have a diacritic) under any vowel (ạ ẹ ị ọ ụ and sometimes ỵ) to tell the reader "hey, don't put the stress on that syllable, but this one instead." "Anew," for instance, would be spelled a''nụ'' and pronounced /ə'nuː/. This usage is extremely common for words with more than one syllable. Vowels that already have a diacritic, however, automatically receive the stress. Because of these spelling rules, the writing system of Ẹńgaliś Anụ is highly phonetic. Grammar Pronouns There are three grammatical numbers: singular, dual, and plural. Singular corresponds to only one subject, dual to two, and plural to three or more. Case As stated below in the Cases section under Nouns, there are 7 cases to follow. This means, different pronouns for different cases! Yay! Nouns Case There are 7 cases for nouns and pronouns to follow, and, unlike verb tense, there is a pattern for them (thank god for that, right?). The cases are as follows: #Námtif (Nominative) #Akzátif (Accusative) #Dátif (Dative) #Jẹntif (Genitive) #Instrụmtif (Insturmental) #Prepọztif (Prepositional) #Vọktif (Vocative) The subject is in the Nominative, the direct object is in the Accusative, the indirect object is in the Dative, the owner of any noun is in the Genitive, the noun with which the subject accomplishes the verb is in the Instrumental, a noun that follows a preposition (the noun by which something is done) is in the Prepositional, and (when the speaker is saying something to someone) the listener is in the Vocative. To put any noun into the Nominative, simply do not add an affix onto the subject. To put the direct object into the Accusative, add the suffix '-u' to the end of that (pro)noun. To put the indirect object into the Dative, add the suffix '-oś' to the end of that (pro)noun. To put the owner of any noun into the Genitive, add the suffix '-êz' to the end of that noun (more on possessive pronouns later). To put the noun with which the subject accomplishes the verb into the Instrumental, add the '-ês' suffix to the end of that noun. To put a noun that follows a preposition into the Prepositional, do not add any affix, because the word in the Prepositional case will already come after a preposition, so there is no need to clarify what exactly is helping the verb accomplish its action. To put the noun of which the speaker is talking to (which is not always used), do not add an affix (this may seem like a pointless case, but bear with me, I'm figuring this out as I go along). Number Now, because there are now already 8 forms of a noun, we are going to add two more so as to decline a noun by number. As stated, there are three grammatical numbers: #Sińál (Singular) #Dụyál (Dual) #Plụrál (Plural) To put a noun into the singular, don't add any affix. To decline according to the dual, you add the vî-''' prefix. To put a noun into the plural form, add the '''-az suffix. Demonstrative Pronouns Coming soon to theaters near you! Verbs There are five tenses, as the quote above implies. However, since there are three different persons, there are fifteen variations of one verb. Although very ridiculous, the verbs conjugate according to tense and person, and, although verbs do not follow a pattern when it comes to tense, they do follow a pattern when verbs conjugate according to person. Even though this may sound very complicated and hard to memorize, I apologize, for that is what learning a foreign language basically is. Person To conjugate a regular verb according to person, you would add a certain suffix according to the person that the subject (which noun/pronoun is in the nominative case) of the sentence is in, using the suffixes in the table below. Tense As stated above, there are five tenses, of which are: *Prêzant (Present) *Pæst (Past) *Imprafêkt (Imperfect) *Fyụcrst (Future) *Sabyụnkt (Subjunctive) Since there are different forms of these to each verb, there will be another page on this language showing them for individual verbs; however, this will probably never really be completed. For clarification (and a "space-waster"): *the present tense is what is happening now *the past tense is what happened before *the imperfect tense is what is repetitively happening over and over *the future tense is what will happen later *the subjunctive ''tense is what theoretically '''might happen' The Nonexistent Copula There is no copula, nor is there a specific verb for "to be" much like that of the Slavic languages. Modality Within this conlang, mood and modality can be used interchangeably, even though they are not quite marked throughout it. The only moods in this language are as follows (within categories): *Realis **Indicative *Irrealis **Deontic ***Imperative **Epistemic ***Assumptive ***Interrogative Infinitives To make a regular verb an infinitive, you would add either the "-am", "-iń", "-en" or "-yen" suffix. There is a rule for which one to add, however: If the verb ends in a nasal or a fricative, it gets the "-am" suffix; if it ends in a plosive or an affricate, it gets the "-iń" suffix; if it ends in a vowel or an approximant, it gets the "-en" or "-yen" suffix. Syntax Word Order Ẹńgaliś anụ has a more flexible word order because of the complex case system, so it allows for emphasis to be put on any one part of the sentence being formed. Although, when in need of a precise word order to put sentences in, subject-object-verb (SOV) is used. Lexicon Swadesh Example text I pooped on the mountain this morning. Î án montan pæp łis morn. Category:Languages Category:English-based